Bad PackageReference version string throws incredibly unhelpful error

[robertmclaws]

Describe the bug

I was an idiot and set a version string of 6.16.0, 7.0.0) for the System.IdentityModel.Tokens.Jwt PackageReference in a OSS library I distribute. (If you aren't noticing the problem, it's missing an open bracket at the very beginning.)

When compiling a .csproj file with this error, the build process throws this error:

1>C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.202\Sdks\Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.PackageDependencyResolution.targets(267,5): 
error NETSDK1005: Assets file 'D:\WorkGit\BlazorCommon\src\CloudNimble.Blazor.Common\obj\project.assets.json' doesn't have a target for 'net6.0'. Ensure that restore has run and that you have included 'net6.0' in the TargetFrameworks for your project.

This is an incredibly unhelpful error, because your next step is going to be to check the .csproj file and see why <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework> disappeared, only to find that it didn't.

Which makes you want to do this: (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Opening up the project.assets.json file shows the real error:

  "logs": [
    {
      "code": "NU1105",
      "level": "Error",
      "message": "Unable to read project information for 'CloudNimble.Blazor.Common': '6.16.0, 7.0.0)' is not a valid version string."
    }
  ]

For whatever reason, instead of skipping over the bad <PackageReference /> to output more detail, project.assets.json stops building the assets file altogether. Further, The ResolvePackageAssets task inside \Microsoft.NET.Sdk\targets\Microsoft.PackageDependencyResolution.targets does not read the very reasonably-designed "logs" property of the output to determine WHY the resolution didn't happen, and output THAT information instead.

To Reproduce

• Break any PackageReference version string inside your .NET 6 project.
• (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Exceptions (if any)

Further technical details

.NET SDK (reflecting any global.json):
 Version:   6.0.300-preview.22204.3
 Commit:    4f23310c97

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.22598
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win10-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.300-preview.22204.3\

Host (useful for support):
  Version: 6.0.4
  Commit:  be98e88c76

.NET SDKs installed:
  3.1.416 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  5.0.302 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  5.0.405 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  6.0.100-preview.5.21302.13 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  6.0.100-rc.1.21463.6 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  6.0.102 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  6.0.202 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]
  6.0.300-preview.22204.3 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk]

.NET runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.22 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.23 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.11 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.14 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.15 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.0-preview.5.21301.17 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.2 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.3 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.22 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.23 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.11 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.14 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.15 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.0-preview.5.21301.5 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.2 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.3 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.22 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 3.1.23 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 5.0.8 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 5.0.9 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 5.0.11 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 5.0.14 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 5.0.15 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 6.0.0-preview.5.21301.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 6.0.2 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 6.0.3 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]
  Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App 6.0.4 [C:\Program Files\dotnet\shared\Microsoft.WindowsDesktop.App]

I couldn't figure out the best area label to add to this issue. If you have write-permissions please help me learn by adding exactly one area label.

[baronfel]

@robertmclaws I'm having a hard time reproducing this one using the following steps:

• use SDK version 6.0.300-preview.22212.2
• dotnet new library -n nuget-cache-logs
• edit csproj to add the following line: <PackageReference Include="Newtonsoft.Json" Version="13.0.1, 14.0.0)" />
• dotnet restore

When I do that, I get the following output:

11:30:11 ❯ dotnet restore
  Determining projects to restore...
C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\6.0.300-preview.22212.2\NuGet.targets(130,5): error : '13.0.1, 14.0.0)' is not a valid version string. [D:\Code\Scratch\nuget-cache-logs\nuget-cache-logs.cspr
oj]

I can't even get the project.assets.json files to populate in this scenario, because the error is so quickly reported.

Do you have a sample project in this bad state that I could try to repro with?

[robertmclaws]

Thanks for looking into this! I should clarify: it doesn't repro from the command line, it repros in Visual Studio 2022 17.2 Preview 3. But the error is thrown in SDK file tasks, so I thought I would report it here first so the right teams can be looped in.

[baronfel]

Ah! Ok, that makes a bit more sense to me. Let's see if I can find something relevant inside the IDE design time build logs then. Thanks for getting back to us!